There have been some seriously mixed feelings about Pantone’s color of the year for 2015. Quite a few people have voiced the opinion that Marsala (18-1438) is a somewhat drab color but you know what? Give me all the things in Marsala! Earthy red toned eyeshadow? Hell yes! (In fact, as I’m writing this, I just realized that an entire wall of my house is a very Marsala type shade).

As per usual, Sephora has introduced an entire line of cosmetics and cosmetic tools in the Marsala shade and out of the products in the line up, I was completely smitten with the eyeshadow palette. I mean look at it! It’s gorgeous right?!

The exterior packaging features a beautiful gradient in a format meant to mimic a Pantone swatch card.The packaging of the palette itself is a super sleek rosy tinted gold. While beautiful, this collects fingerprints like nobody’s business. Not really an important note, but a note none the less.I quite like the Pantone swatch cards on the back of the exterior packaging. I normally throw all of this away, but I am having a hard time ditching this just because the nerd in me likes knowing the Pantone shades of every eyeshadow in this palette.

Sephora’s description of the palette:

This travel-size eye shadow palette features 24 shades that complement Marsala, the Color of the Year for 2015, plus four Marsala shadows with different finishes—matte, glitter, pearl, and shimmer. Use it to create five different Marsala-inspired looks or your own endless combinations. This palette was inspired by the beloved Holiday 2012 Pantone Metallic Palette.

Designed to evoke the sleek, modern lines of the iconic Pantone Chip, and newly imagined with a captivating Marsala ombre color variation, 2015’s Color of the Year Collection makes a stunning presentation. Each product features Sephora Collection’s high performance formulas for rich color payoff and luxurious feel during wear. Refined finishes like matte, cream, metallic, and lacquer allow for a fuller expression of this bold nude shade, from sheer luminosity to wildly rich pigments.

On to the actual product! I’m going to insert about 2 billion photos here and then give the details of the actual palette at the end so if that’s what you’re looking for, just keep on scrollin’!

Swatching protocol: I swirl my finger in the product three times and do a single swipe to achieve the swatches below.

I almost re-took this photo but then realized that the blurriness really highlights the different textures in the four Marsala shades.

Palette Details

24 Eyeshadow shades

Each shadow is .017oz/.5g

9 x Matte shadows

7 x Glitter (or matte base with glitter) shadows

8 x Satin/Metallic shadows

I would say that there are really only 2 cool shades and possibly 4 neutral shades. The rest are quite warm.

Wear time: I noticed minor/moderate (depending on the shade) fading within 2-3 hours. I had zero to extremely mild creasing on these after around 6-8 hours.

Now get this, I got a bee in my bonnet to do the exact same look four times, substituting the various Marsala shades (really awful pictures below to satisfy your morbid curiosity) and I used sweet almond oil to remove the shadow before re-applying each time. I wasn’t particularly careful about removing the oil but guess what? STILL NO CREASING ON THE FINAL LOOK. I wore the shit out of that look for a good four more hours and it looked damn good when I got around to taking it off again. I think that’s pretty impressive. I wore various shadows from this palette on multiple different days and had much the same experience. I only used a sticky base one time and oddly enough, the shadows didn’t apply as nicely over it, but it didn’t seem to change the wear time very much. I’m a huge fan of an eyeshadow that doesn’t require assistance from primers so these get an A+ in the wear time category.

Application: The majority of these shadows are very pigmented and smooth. I find all of these to be easy to blend and not much product is required to get a good amount of color intensity. In the looks below, there was minimal product used so it would be quite easy to build these to a higher opacity. I didn’t experience any fallout with any shade (and at this point I’ve used every single shade). The consistency of the product is smooth and not too soft or too hard. They almost feel creamy if I had to try to describe it in one word. The only two shades that kicked up any powder in the pan were Macaroon and Chutney and the amount was negligible.

Shade Range:

There is only one shade (Macaroon) that works as a transition color for my skin tone. It’s a good shade for that purpose but I could see myself going through that particular shadow more quickly. But really, how many transition shades does a girl need?

There is no matte highlight shade. I initially thought that Autumn Blond might work as a base/highlight shade but it’s shimmery/glittery enough that it will glitterify (it’s a word now ok!) any shadow you apply over it (see aforementioned Marsala looks below…that matte shade really is matte, any shimmer is Autumn Blond trying to steal the spotlight).

There is not a black shade in this palette. For me this is actually a huge plus because I NEVER use black eyeshadow and always feel like I’ve been cheated of a potentially awesome color in a palette that contains it. I do know that a good number of people will not see this as a plus.

This is a predominantly warm palette. Again, for me, this is freaking awesome. I rarely use cool toned eyeshadow so this is basically my dream palette as far as tone is concerned.

The range of depth in this palette is solid. There are even variations on depth within the gold shades.

Overview

I love this. A lot. For me, rusty, warm neutrals, golds and reds are totally my jam so this palette is basically tailor made for me. They should could have named this palette after me. I’m really impressed with the quality of this palette as well. I really can’t think of a single thing to complain about so I think it’s safe to say that this is a rave review. I do recognize that this palette won’t be for everyone because of the lack of variety in the cool/warm spectrum, but I think a lot of people will love it and I think it’s a good bang for your buck.

How do you feel about Marsala being the 2015 color of the year? Are you going to pick up anything from the Sephora collection? My new mantra goes something like “you do not need more blush and mascara you do not need more blush and mascara” because the blush palette and that red mascara are seriously tempting.

If you don’t want to be frightened by mediocre makeup application and some super awesomely lit iPhone photos now would be the time to leave this page.

I love a rusty berry color on my eyes! Estee Lauder has a berry palette with a shade very much like Marsala Satin (I just typed satan instead of satin) that I love. I’m pretty sure I have a Marsala-type color in almost every finish and formula – Marsala, Bronze, and an Ashy-taupe and you have my entire eyeshadow wardrobe.
Also, I really like how the red accents blue eyes!

I’m glad the seatches were helpful! The palette as a whole is stunning but those were my favorite shades as well. I love having the multiple finishes of the same shade, especially that particular shade.